1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to stents that are implanted into a body vessel. More specifically, the present invention relates to an expandable stent having a tubular flexible body with a wall formed of a web structure.
2. Background Information
Very different types of stents are already known from the prior art. For example, there are coronary stents such as balloon expanded stents or self-expandable stents. The stent forms a vascular prosthesis made from a physically compatible material. The stent or stent prosthesis is used for expanding blood vessels, or also other body orifices, and for keeping the vessels or orifices in an expanded state. To this end, the stent is normally positioned in a non-expanded state in a patient's body, usually with the help of a balloon catheter onto which the stent is crimped, and is then expanded. During expansion the individual stent portions of the stent are deformed, so that the stent remains in its expanded form in a permanent way.
A stent of the type indicated is disclosed in German Utility Model Patent Publication DE-U-297 08 689.8. In this stent, several S-shaped connection elements are provided as connectors between the web patterns of the web structure of the stent wall. Although these connection elements in the non-expanded state result in a very flexible stent construction and, in the expanded state, in a stent construction with a high radial force or radial-force absorbing capacity, improvements are nevertheless possible as it cannot be ruled out all the time that during expansion the connection elements bulge outwards or inwards from the wall plane, whereby the surrounding tissue is slightly injured and the formation of thromboses or restenoses is promoted.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved stent. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.